Serbian talks with EU face suspension
by Jovana Gec

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
2 May 2006

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - A top Serbian official acknowledged Monday that the European Union will likely suspend aid and trade talks with Serbia after Belgrade missed the bloc's deadline for capturing war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.

Rasim Ljajic, the Serbian liaison to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, said Serb authorities will keep hunting for the fugitive ex-Bosnian Serb commander, who was indicted by the U.N. court for genocide ... in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War II.

``The EU will not take into account the efforts we have put in (locating Mladic) so far,'' Ljajic said. ``They want the final result—Mladic in the Hague.''

Defense Minister Zoran Stankovic, a longtime friend of Mladic, said Monday that Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will address the nation this week about Mladic. He did not offer details about the address but said, ``no individual is more important than the people and the state.''

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn is to meet chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte Wednesday to decide whether to call off a May 11 round of trade and aid talks with Belgrade. The EU gave Belgrade until April 30 to catch Mladic after it missed an earlier March 31 deadline.

U.N. prosecutors insist Mladic is in Serbia, but Ljajic said his whereabouts are unknown.

Serbian media have reported that Kostunica, who promised to deliver Mladic to The Hague this month, was secretly negotiating Mladic's surrender to the U.N. court.

Ljajic has said authorities uncovered a support network of about 130 individuals, mostly Bosnian Serbs, who sheltered and protected Mladic. Five Mladic aides have been arrested in recent months.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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